


Middle Of Things (Beautiful Wife)

by Zighana



Category: On My Block (TV)
Genre: Based on a song, Drama, F/M, Gen, Guilt, Takes place after Ruby got shot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-13 04:20:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16010177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zighana/pseuds/Zighana
Summary: Oscar meets the ghost of what could've been after hitting the beach.





	1. Big Ol Dreams In Real Life

He could've been a chef.

Sometimes, when he lied in bed alone in his thoughts, he fantasized about the smell of spices and flavors that only he could make. He imagines Cesar grinning at him as he serve plate after plate of his food to hungry patrons, his Monse and the gang among them.

He could hear himself bark food orders while he runs across the kitchen to make sure a dish is in perfect condition, taste the sweat in his mouth that he hastily wipes away with a dough-encrusted towel that he threw over his shoulder the second he started his shift.

He's shaking hands with his ex-mentors, grinning as they tell him with a sparkle in their eyes, _"I'm so proud of you. Freeridge's finest."_

Before he could lift a fork to his mouth to taste the fruits of his labor, his burner phone buzzes.

He answers.

"Yeah?"

He hears frantic noises and strains his ears to hear. He hears a woman screaming hysterically, the loud whir of ambulances.

Ice falls into the pit of his stomach.

"Oscar?" Cesar's voice stands out.

"What the fuck is going on? Answer me right now." Oscar snaps. 

_"Ruby got shot."_

"What?" Oscar's up now, gripping the phone tighter to cease his shaking palms.

"Ruby got shot. La- _The Prophets_ came into Olivia's quinceanera and started shooting. Olivia also got shot but... _Olivia's gone_. The cops are investigating it as a homicide and if Ruby doesn't pull through, it's going to be a _double homicide_." Cesar's voice cracks.

"Where are you calling from?"

"A...A payphone. The cops are close by snooping around Ruby's house. They're interviewing everyone with a fine-tooth comb but no one's saying nothing. We know better than to tell the cops anything."

"Meet me in fifteen minutes."

"Where-"

" _Fifteen minutes._ " Oscar enunciates. He hangs up and runs his fingers through his shaved head. 

He leaves the bed and snatches his boxers and jeans. When he grabs his keys, a hand in the darkness grabs his wrist.

"Where you going? It's two in the morning." it asks.

Oscar tugs his hand away.

"Out."

A sigh.

The bed squeaks as the body leaves it; the moonlight catches her naked body as she bends down to pick up something. 

"I'm getting really tired of this." She says.

"Cleo, I don't want to deal with this right now." Oscar starts.

"You never do." she finishes.

She turns on the light and makes her way to the front door, Oscar trailing after.

"You want to take a shower first? You already got your clothes in my dresser."

"I got to meet someone in fifteen minutes."

"Smelling like sex?"

"They'll get over it."

He knows she's looking at him in disgust.

"Goodnight." She says blankly. Oscar tries to kiss her but she turns her head.

He snorts.

When the door closes behind him, he fishes out for his keys and makes his way to the car.

~~~

"Tell me _everything_ you know. Don't leave any details out. _Comprendes_?" 

Cesar, still in his suit and tie, looks up at Oscar with a look Oscar knows all too well; guilt.

"The Prophets came to the party-"

"Which ones?"

"I-I don't know, they were wearing hoodies. Ruby was...blocking them."

"We're going to figure out who did this, baby brother. We're going to find them and make them pay for what they did to Olivia and Ruby."

"No."

"No?"

"Oscar, you're my brother and I do love you. But this? This isn't the way."

"I told you..."

"Listen to me. Okay, we find the people that did this and _boom_ , we kill them. What's going to stop them from coming here again to retaliate? _This isn't going to stop_."

"This is how it's supposed to be-"

"Two of my friends got shot!" Cesar yells, grabbing Oscar's shirt. Fury flashes in Oscar's face but he maintains his composure. "My ex-girlfriend is _dead_. They...they didn't do anything to anyone. They were good people, Oscar. Good. People. An innocent person _died_. At her _quince_. My best friend might not make it through the night. I can't do this."

Cesar's voice breaks and it's at that moment he breaks down. 

"I was supposed to protect Ruby, and I failed. If Ruby dies, it's on my hands. _All of this is my fault._ "

Oscar wraps his arms around his brother in a bear hug, his sobs muffled by his shirt. 

He lets his little brother cry until he's tired, his wails replaced with shuddering breaths. He pulls away, wiping his face and regulating his breathing. When he regulates himself, he looks at his brother and croaks out, "Why are you wearing women's perfume?"

The two brothers stare at each other in silence. The gears turn in Cesar's head when he lets out a horrified, "oh."

Oscar smirks.

"Come on, Lil Spooky." Oscar revs the car to life.

"Let's go visit Ruby."


	2. Crowned King (And His Beautiful Wife)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oscar meets someone special at the beach.

Oscar thumbs the steering wheel, fighting the urge to dig into his pocket and light up.

He doesn't do hospitals; the smells, the tears, the overwhelming presence of death, it's all too much.

Last time he went to the hospital was to see his and Cesar's mother. She'd been hospitalized after thirty-plus years of drinking and partying finally caught up to her and she's a shell of what she used to be. She was hooked up to so many tubes and monitors, her hands clammy and hot, a contrast from her normally tough and cold hands after a life of prison and crime. 

He was the only child who could come in; Cesar was too young at the time and often stayed with their grandmother six blocks down. 

_"She's had a stroke. Normally someone her age could bounce back from this but her history of alcohol and drugs has wrecked so much irreversible damage to her body that she...she won't make it through the night." The doctor told him. He, shy of seventeen, didn't bat an eye._

_"I get it. Mom's gonna die. Whatever."_

_The doctor is taken aback._

_"Aren't you at least...distraught, over your mother? This could be the last time you see her-"_

_"My mom was an alcoholic junkie who didn't give a shit about me or my brother. Do what you got to do."_

_Silence._

_The doctor eyed him in a look of both sympathy and disappointment, and left the room. Oscar sat beside his mother, watching her struggle to breathe at a steady pace and felt nothing._

_His mother died hours later and he didn't shed a tear._

A sharp tapping at his window makes him jerk. 

"It's me." Cesar says with a thin smile. 

~~~

"You need anything, baby brother?" 

"No, I'm good. I'm meeting up with Monse tonight to go over her biology exam for next Tuesday. I'll see you when you come in?"

"Probably not. I'm staying over at my _ruca's_ tonight."

"Hey, Oscar. I hear you mention your ruca sometimes but...I've never seen her. I don't think... _anyone_ has seen her. I don't know why you don't introduce me to her-"

"You'll meet her. One day."

"What is she like?"

"She's...different."

"Different enough that you don't bring her around us?"

Oscar tenses and inhales sharply, a warning that his temper is creeping through the surface.

Cesar casts his eyes downward.

"You want me to drop it. Got it. Thanks for the ride." Cesar says, closing the door behind him. 

Oscar pulls off, driving to the one thing that brought him comfort: the beach.

~~~

The ocean's salty breeze gives him a strange sense of calm. 

The sun is at that perfect moment of the golden hour, bathing everything in a glow that people wrote poems about. 

He exhales the blunt smoke before taking a drag, embracing the ocean's steady crash of waves.

This is the best time; the parents and their loud ass kids have come and gone and the couples are tucked away into their cars to express their love in the privacy of their cars or homes. The remaining people on the beach are ones who are probably doing what he's doing and in peace, contemplating their existence in the grand scheme of the universe. 

He's an ant, a speck barely making a ripple in the world. His life could be over right now, and the world would keep on ticking. 

Normally thoughts like this would upset him, but it makes him elated. He doesn't matter. None of this matters. Right now, he's an ant in the universe, enjoying a fickle existence where his life could be over with one bullet. Taking in a sunset with the anxiety that it could be his last. 

Fuck this is some good weed. 

"Daddy, Daddy look! Orange!"

In his peripheral, he sees a child, no older than five, running across the sand, turning back at his parents to point at the sky over the ocean. His parents catch up to him, the father grabbing him and putting his son on his shoulders. The mother is not too far behind, a little girl bouncing on her hip, pacifier in her mouth. Her stomach is starting to show; there's a third on the way. The family reunite, sitting across from him to observe the ocean and the setting sun. 

It looks like the perfect picture; a mother and father with their children, watching the sunset. All they need was a dog.

He should mind his business, but he's staring at them. 

The mother looks...eerily similar to Cleo. She looks like an older and chubbier version of her, her chunky box braids replaced with dreadlocks that are pulled into a sloppy bun. The father is...him. He looks just like him, only older and his hair grown out. The kids, now that he thinks about it, looks like a mixture of what his and Cleo's children could look like.

He's seeing... _himself_. With a _family_. 

_Happy._

This is...like he'd stepped into the Twilight Zone? Are they real? Is he imagining it?

The mother notices him staring and leans over to the father, whispering in his ear while her hand clutches something in her purse. The father looks at him and after a moment of awkward staring, he walks over to Oscar. 

The father's in his face, now. His body heat is radiating off on Oscar and the soft scent of cologne he knows is expensive makes his nose itch.

Oh, shit. They're real.

"Can I help you, sir?" He asks Oscar. Oscar snorts.

"We ain't that much older than one another. I should be calling _you_ sir." he says, taking another puff of his blunt.

The father's guard falters. He cracks a gentle smile.

"You look...familiar. You go to Freeridge?"

"No. I was..." Oscar stops himself.

"Look, I wasn't trying to creep your old lady out. You guys look...familiar."

"I could say the same thing. I... _see myself in you_." the man laughs. He holds out his hand to shake.

"My name is Julio. I'm a..." he gives a nervous chuckle. "I'm a chef."

"You're a chef?" Oscar's eyebrows raise.

"Yeah, umm..." Julio turns to his nervous wife and back to face Oscar, "here's my card. If you ever want a quick bite to eat, you know where to find me. But in the meantime, I got to pretend I'm _not_ trying to network with complete strangers who creep out my wife so..." Julio slips the card into Oscar's hand.

"I hope to see you, yeah?"

Oscar inspects the card.

**Julio's Kitchen: _Home of the Jerk Enchiladas!_  
** Address: 3457 Brentwood Dr, Los Angeles, CA  
Phone: 555-8795 

"W-"

He was gone. By the time Oscar looks up, him and his family are already walking to their car. 

Taking it as his cue, he makes his way back to his own car, tucking the card into his chain wallet.

~~~

"You want to go out for dinner?"

Cleo eyes him in suspicion. 

"That your way to get inside?"

"Don't be like that."

"I'm going to slam the door in your face right now." 

Before the door could completely slam, he grabs the door, pushes it open and enters before slamming the door behind him.

"I guess since you're here and not leaving, you can make yourself comfortable on the couch."

He rolls his eyes and sits on the couch.

"I'm tired of you coming over here to smash and leave at all hours of the night."

Oscar wraps his arms around her and pulls her to his lap, her legs straddling his hips. He slides his hands to cup her ass and massage it, knowing he's working her soft spot. 

"Babygirl," he breathes out, kissing her palm. 

"Stop." She barks, but her breath hitches when his kisses move from her palm to the dip in her elbow.

"Let's go out."

"You _never_ take me out." She mutters. Oscar is unhooking her halter top when he looks up at her.

"I take you out." he counters.

"You never take me out _in public_. We've been together for eight years and you still hide me like a bad secret. I'm starting to think you're ashamed to be seen with me."

"No, no I'm not. I'm hiding you to protect you."

"From what?"

"I can't talk about that and you know it."

"I'm getting really tired of you hiding shit from me." She jerks her arm and moves to get off, but he grabs holds her in place.

"Hey, hey. _Hey._ Don't be like that. This time it'll be different. We can go out, have a few drinks, and have a good time. Just like you wanted."

"Why are you doing this now-"

He kisses her, grabbing her throat. She moans, rolling her hips against his. He falls back, taking her with him, resuming their kissing. Cleo leans up, rolling her hips and has a look that makes Oscar bite his lip.

"One of these days, all the shit you hide from me..." she starts. She slides her hand to rest at his neck. Leaning in, she whispers in his ear,

" _Will come to the light._ "

She dismounts him, marches to her bedroom door and slams it shut before Oscar could gain his footing. He turns the knob but it's locked. 

"Cleo," he says through the door.

Sighing, he makes his way to the couch and lies there, trying to will his aching bottom half away by counting the sequins on her banner for the wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Julio is a reference to the actor that plays Oscar Diaz from On My Block, Julio Macias. The concept was Oscar to see almost like an alternate him existing with the life that he could've had. 
> 
> In regards to the questions jtownsend7 wrote in regards to the Cleo/Oscar dynamic, I can't speak too much on it in fear of it spoiling it for future stories, but I will say that Oscar has some form of care for Cleo because their relationship is one built off history. 
> 
> I think Oscar as a character is more interested in himself and the well-being of his brother. Everything else is secondary, even his love life. 
> 
> I'll delve into their relationship in later chapters (and in Breathing Underwater it's delved into much deeper), so you'll be able to get the answers you need!
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> So! I'm taking a break from the smutty goodness of Oscar and my OC Cleo to do a take on Oscar's reaction to Ruby getting shot as well as learning Cesar's decisions that have lead to this point. This is based of of Xavier Omar & Sango's track "Middle of Things/Beautiful Wife" off of their album together that is sooo fucking amazing. 
> 
> My take on the song was about a man fantasizing about the perfect life with a beautiful wife and I think it can be applied to Oscar's dream of going to culinary school and being a successful chef that had to get put on hold to look after his little brother. Looking at it in that sense makes the track sound bittersweet and I wanted to capture that.
> 
> Hope you enjoy! More to come!


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